Te Marama

Abstract

Written and directed by Pearl Hotene, Te Marama played at the Meteor theatre in 2004 and also at Garden Place. It was the story of a young woman discovering both herself and her Maori heritage in a modern Hamilton that at that time all but obscured what had gone before. Told through a series of conversations between herself, her Nana and Spirits of the past, Te Marama calmly reclaimed a Hamilton history that had been hidden from sight for too long. Who had known that the top of what is now known as Wintec hill had been a sacred site, or that the corner of Victoria Street and Claudelands Road had been an urupa?